This week, officials with the El Paso based North American Collegiate League (NACL) announced new partnerships with the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) and the Fosun Group to expand participation and viewing opportunities in eSports.

NACL is a non-profit Esports and entertainment organization that hosts and streams video game tournaments and league play for collegiate Esports competitors with scholarship prizes.

“This serves the purpose of fostering a communal relationship between established players, those who are looking to enter the scene, and even those who do not entirely know what the Esports industry has to offer them,” NACL officials shared.

The partnership between NACL and the MAAC features a plan to host an NBA 2K20 tournament for graduating senior and alumni MAAC Basketball student-athletes. The tournament is set to take place May 29 and 30 and will be run in conjunction with the North American Collegiate League (NACL).

“The MAAC is excited to partner with the NACL to host a competition for our former and graduating basketball student-athletes in a difficult time in which there is little to no live sports,” said MAAC Commissioner Rich Ensor. “We look forward to providing our student-athletes more opportunities in the digital realm, especially after a successful launch of our inaugural MAAC Esports Tournament on an online format.”

The field will consist of 16 former MAAC Basketball players, open to both men and women, going head-to-head in a best of three series in each round.

Three random NBA teams will be available for participants to choose from before each game. Players will compete on an Xbox One platform and all action will be live streamed on Twitch for fans to watch.

“We are excited to work with our partners at the MAAC as well as with NACL to bring this event to life,” said Mark Donley, Senior Vice President, Collegiate Services at Van Wagner. “Esports continues to grow in its relevancy as a marketing platform for corporate America. This is a great way to intersect college athletics and esports in a fun way.”

David Chen, President of the NACL, added “Our entire NACL is excited to work with the MAAC conference and Van Wagner to offer an exciting experience through esports.”

More tournament information, including a full list of participants, will be announced by the MAAC later in the week. Tournament announcements and results can be found online and by following @MAACHoops and @MAACEsports on Twitter. Fans can join the conversation by using #MAACHoops.

Earlier this week, NACL and Fosun Group announced their strategic partnership that will create an eSports streaming platform.

According to officials, the NACL-Fosun streaming platform will allow the two parties to cooperate in the production, distribution and broadcasting of NACL tournaments, eSports TV shows and other eSports related contents.

The NACL-Fosun partnership has also joined forces with Wolves eSports which is an affiliate of the professional eSports team, Wolverhampton FC.

In a joint agreement between NACL and Fosun group, a comprehensive cooperation covering all segments of the eSports arena including content creation and television production will be conducted.

“The synergy between NACL-Fosun will allow the production of high quality streaming and TV content designed at targeting the eSports community on a global scale,” NACL officials added.

“To implement the interactive “import” and “export” strategy for the cultural industries in China, NACL and Fosun group will work closely together to tap into the opportunities in the eSports industry that are destined to emerge from the explosive gaming growth in China.”

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